Thursday, February 9, 2017

In August 2016 a married mother called by the pseudonym
Maria by the press came forth and admitted to a BBC journalist on videotape
that she was a contract assassin who had murdered six persons in Manila as a
covert agent for President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drug cartels. She said she
received orders and payments of £330 from a police officer. She was recruited
into the killer-for-hire business by her husband, who is also a hired killer.
She said she belonged to a team of three hitwomen.

Maria explained that female killers were especially “valued
because they were able to get close to targets that men could not.” She
confessed to a reporter that “If it was up to me, I really don't want to do it
any longer. But my boss told us that if one of us tries to leave, we would be
killed.”

On September 3rd Senior Supt. Dionardo Carlos of the Philippine National
Police issued an official statement that the story was unverified. “PNP Chief
Director General Ronald dela Rosa said during Thursday’s Senate hearing on the
spate of “drug killings” that as of Aug. 31, the PNP has officially tallied 929
suspects killed in police antinarcotics operations since July 1. But the tally
for drugs suspects killed by unidentified gunmen – usually marked by cardboard
signages identifying them as drugs personalities – tend to be more indeterminate,
precisely because the perpetrators and their motives are officially unknown.”
[PDI, Sep. 3, 2016]

During Duterte’s campaign for president he promised to kill 100,000
criminals in his first six months in office.

***

Sources:

[Corey
Charlton, “Female Assassin: Meet
the ruthless hitwoman hired to execute drug dealers for the Filipino president
at £330 a time in his bloody crime crackdown,” The Sun (London), Aug. 26, 2016]